Friday, May 26, 2006

Pennsylvania Dutch


Since some of us are far removed from our Amish ancestors we may not know why they spoke Pennsylvania Dutch.
The first immigrants from Switzerland and Southern Germany spoke German. After arriving in America they came in contact with English. In time, this German evolved into a unique dialect of Pennsylvania Deutsch, or Pennsylvania German. This dialect was later dubbed "PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH" because of the English way of saying "Deutsch" (nothing to do with Holland).